Time to jump on the rumour mill and predict, with scary accuracy what Apple’s event due to take place at the end of January (’10), will hold.

Update: Looks like once again I have been spot on with my Apple predictions. I have linked to stories confirming my assertions where appropriate.

Mac OS X Touch

The new name for iPhone OS. Currently the iPhone OS runs on iPhone’s, iPod’s and inside developers Mac Pro’s.

It’s time for a name change — Mac OS X Touch 1.0. It will effectively be iPhone OS 4.0, we might get a few 3.x updates to smooth the transition but by the end of 2010 iPhone OS will be dead — Long live Mac OS X Touch.

Features

These features all taken form my musings on Twitter.

Naming

• UPDATE: Touch OS 4.0
• UPDATE: Mac Touch OS 4.0

API

• Voice Control API
• Low level camera API
• Bluetooth API
• launchd API (instead of multi-process support)
• Data detectors API
• Advanced gesture API
• Advanced iSync API (for 3rd parties)

Updates

• USB support (for iSlate)
• Extra non-standard WebKit extentions
• Definitely no Flash support
• Multi-camera support (see Apps below)
• Video output
• Handwriting recognition

Interface Updates

• Animated springboard icons
• Advanced App management
• Lock App positions in springboard

Apps

• RELEASED: iWork App (instead of file system) [MacRumours.com] [AppleInsider]
• iChat [Orange Exec Confirms Apple Tablet Is On The Way]
• UPDATE: Remote Desktop App (iPad Only)
• UPDATE: Apple TV App (iPad Only)

It would be very nice to see these in my stocking come the 25th of December, but I don’t hold out much hope.

1. Virtualized Snow Leopard — developers would love the ability to run multiple copies of Snow Leopard on there 8-core Mac Pro. And all it would take is a change to the licence agreement.
2. FireFox on the iPhone — I can honestly see this happening, but with one caveat, it’ll cost you. A change in SDK terms might allow paid-for-apps to replace existing functionality.
3. Family Pack of iTablets — 3 devices for $999.99, runs the iPhone OS but with keyboard and mouse support. A Kindle/Netbook killer!
4. iPhone discounts for developers — we sold 2 billion f**king Apps! How about some love, 2 per year at 80% off?
5. UK App Store Promo Codes — all I can say to this is AHHHHHHHHHHH! How can I get Jemima Kiss to review my amazing App if she has to buy it!
6. Apple TV that works — it’s easy; Blue Ray player, Hulu, iPlayer and 4OD support. Job done. Drop the price by £50 / $100 and you have instant living room domination.
7. WWDC Europe — I love San Francisco but a London or Paris event would make a lot of people happy
8. Playing nice with Google Voice — Apple and Google do some much better against Microsoft when they’re not fighting
9. Buy Adobe — you’ve got the cash, you could kill Flash (or make it better), 64 bit Photoshop, …, etc, etc
10. End the exclusivity, sell more iPhone — iPhones account for more than 40% of smartphone sales in countries with out exclusivity (i.e. France). How many more of my amazing Apps would I sell if iPhone got a 2-5x market increase? Enough to stop plugging it every 5 minutes.
11. Buy Dell and install Snow Leopard on every computer, just for fun

The rumour mill has been swirling – Apple Tablet they cry. “Doom to fail” they sneer. I’m not so stupid as to predict an Apple device to fail, if we’ve learnt anything since SJ’s return it’s that, Apple learns from it’s mistakes!

I shall enumerate these “mistakes” and point out the silver lining:

1. Apple Cube… Mac Mini and Apple TV
2. Newton (and killing it)… iPhone/iPod Touch
3. Mac Clones… Intel processors
4. No iPhone SDK (at launch)… The App Store
5. Apple TV… Apple TV 2
6. Apple TV 2… TBA

Recently I wrote a post called iDevice, the one paragraph that keeps popping into my head is this:

Back in the late 90’s when Steve came back to Apple he gave a Keynote (I have it on VHS somewhere), where he talked about the similarities of digital watches and computers (bare with me). He pointed out that in the 80’s the average American household had 1 digital watch and today (late 90’s) it’s 8 (NB: I’m writing form memory but the point stands). — iDevice

I now believe this to been even more relevant. Any new iDevice from Apple will try and fill the gap between laptop and iPhone. Just as we all now own 8 digital watches we’ll all have 3 or 4 iPads/iDevices/What-ever by the dawn of the next decade.

Apple has no interest in Netbooks, it has MacBooks to fill that gap. It is however, very interested in selling a few billion more Apps and defining an entirely new market segment.

The killer App here is an eBook reader, but not necessarily for novels. The iPhone SDK 3.0 has in App purchase, and the ability for subscriptions. My guess is; newspapers and magazines.

Download the OK Magazine App or New York Times App, the publishers finally get a revenue from online content, Apple gets 30% (or more like 10% form big publishers) and you get the daily papers downloaded to your iDevice before you leave the house in the morning — ready to read on the train.

Add to the mix; games, web access, external keyboard and mouse and you get a Netbook killer not iPhone sales eroding.

Don’t expect an Office type suite, Google Docs or what ever Microsoft are calling Office online today, (Office Live.Net XP SP 3?) will do just fine thanks (oh and Apple’s own Mobile Me).

The best guess for price will be $100 more that the most expensive iPod Touch. But, a subscription to a mobile data plan at $10 / month might half that price. Apple want you to buy 2 or more of these; office, lounge, bed room and one for the kids. So a 3 pack — as bizarre as it sounds — is a real option, maybe for as little as $899 (with a data plan). You can’t get a MacBook for that, the family pack; 3 iDevices for under $1000 would be very attractive.

*Pricing: I’ve used $ and not £ values because Apple seem to price every thing in $ and then use their own exchange rate to convert to £. I love to see 3 devices for £500 but it’ll be more like £800.

Here are my 8 candidates, ripe for an Apple takeover, baring any regulatory intervention. I have no insider knowledge and full expect Apple to hoard it’s money during the economic downturn, but wouldn’t it be cool if…

The Obvious

Dell – A huge rival, and certainly would give them a boot in market share. But what would be the point? 90% of existing Dell customers wouldn’t buy a Mac unless it was at Dell prices. Apple’s only choice would to ship a version of OS X for Dell boxes, there’s no value, it would just increase market share for the other low cost PC makers. Odds: 20/1

Sun Microsystems – Apple and Sun have long been linked but it recent months Apple has been cast as the aggressor. Technology-wise Apple could do far worse that Sun; Solaris, SPARC, Java, DTrace, MySQL the list goes on and on. Apple are desperate to break the Enterprise market, this would give them a big leg up. Odds: 5/1

Palm – Again, I see little point to this acquisition an instant doubling of there Enterprise phone market, but it certainly wouldn’t double iPhone sales. Palm (much like Apple) have a hardcore of supporters that would be unwilling to move to the iPhone. Again the only route for Apple would be iPhone OS for Palm devices, an interesting proposition. Odds: 15/1

The Not So Obvious

EA – Games are almost important to Apple, with the enviable side-effect of the App Store being a massive games market for the iPhone Apple is ideally placed to become a industry leader. It has long puzzled me why Apple has never got a foothold in the games market? Maybe because they let Microsoft buy the companies making Mac games. But I digress, EA would bring some great titles to the Mac and iPhone/iPod, Apple could start to challenge Sony and Nintendo; a beefed up Apple TV that can play (proper) games, handhelds that interact seamlessly and Desktops and Laptops with hundreds of titles! Apple would rule the living room. Odds: 10/1

Nintendo – This is just a quickie; Wii technology, Japan, Nintendo DS market share plus all the reasons listed above. Odds: 25/1

AMD – Apple have shown their willingness to get their hands dirty when it comes to chip design so how about AMD. Production, design, technology, brains. They would get all this with AMD, plus cheeper chips for desktops etc. Intel would not be happy and it would take some effort to get OS X optimized for AMD. Odds: 18/1

Boxee – Lets face it Apple TV hasn’t lived up to it potential, maybe it’s a slow burner. Version 2.0 of the software was a massive step forward, but buying Boxee would be a quantum leap! Couple this with an iPhone emulator so you can play App Store games and you getting close to a game changer. My advice to Apple would be to give away Apple TV’s with iPhone contracts on AT&T, T-Mobile etc, it needs market share but more importantly mindshare. Include a digital TV receiver and recording functionality and your away. Odds: 10/1

The Crazy

Twitter - http://valleywag.gawker.com/5240350/could-apple-buy-twitter You have to Ask you self one question? Why? And the answer can only be iPhone. But that only throws up more questions? iPhone and Mac OS X already have a billion clients, the only only way they could have a strategical advantage would be to close the API to not iPhone/Mac OS X clients. Piss off a lot of people and Kill Twitter… never going to happen 10,000/1

Adobe – have a license to print money with Photoshop, Apple would do well to drop the price and cancel the PC version. Incorporating features into iPhoto and Mobile Me (online). In addition they would control Flash/Flex and have a jump on Microsoft’s Silverlight. Flash for the iPhone would make some people very happy too. In addition, allowing App Store application to be written in Flash would increase the inventory 10 fold, it’s an attractive idea for 1000’s for Flash developers (that would otherwise never touch iPhone/iPod development) and Apple. Odds: 50/1

An audible silence consumed the packed Moscone conference centre today as Steven P Jobs took to the stage with all the confidence and swagger of a young Keith Richards, completely billy bollocks.

In a stunning departure from his legendary jeans and black turtle neck, Jobs’ reality distortion field was in full swing! All 10 inches of it.

In what some experts are cynically calling a, “publicity stunt” to divert attention away from mediocre MacBook updates and an embarrassing withdrawal from the mobile market place on the back of, “poorer than expected” iPhone sales.

An open mouthed press core and faithful Apple fanboys we’re visibly stunned. In an interview with attendees after the keynote many refused to believe Mr Jobs was in-fact naked and instead insisted, “if you can’t see his clothes your not a true believer.”